City to get 1,500 more low-floor buses soon

To stimulate urban management, the Central government will approve proposals to sanction 5,000 new buses for 63 major cities of India, including Delhi, and projects worth Rs 11,000 crore for construction of roads and civic amenities in a week's time.

To stimulate urban management, the Central government will approve proposals to sanction 5,000 new buses for 63 major cities of India, including Delhi, and projects worth Rs 11,000 crore for construction of roads and civic amenities in a week's time.

The decision has the twin objective of providing stimulus to automobile and construction industry and to reduce urban pollution.

Delhi, which has already introduced low-floor buses, will get 1,500 more buses in the next few months, said Planning Commission secretary Subhas Pani on Friday.

It is for the first time that funds have been allocated to Delhi for buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). Delhi has over 1,000 non-air-conditioned and air-conditioned low floor buses in the city already. “The money given to Delhi is for special city-specific low floor buses,” Pani said.

Mumbai will get 700 buses whereas 150 bses for Navi Mumbai and 200 buses for Thane have been approved. The government has also approved 700 buses for Bangalore, 1,200 for Kolkatta, 700 for Hyderabad and 800 for Chennai. “By June 2009, the buses would be on road,” Pani said. The approvals would be based on a recent Cabinet decision to initiate a new scheme of Rs 2,000 crore to provide modern buses to 63 cities listed under the JNURM.